This year, Sonoma County lost more than a dozen well-known restaurants — far fewer than in previous years, but heartbreaking nonetheless. Whether staffing shortages, financial woes or other reasons forced the closures, we will miss the meals we enjoyed at each of them.
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New restaurants, new dishes and best bets for this season’s dining. Click through the above gallery for best bets.
This new seafood roadhouse, a sister to standout Valley Bar + Bottle, brings together a diverse set of influences, such as New England clam shacks, surf culture, and late 1960s California Naturalism. “It’s what we really love,” says co-owner and chef Emma Lipp, who heads the culinary program with her partner, chef Stephanie Reagor. Valley co-owners Lauren Feldman and Tanner Walle handle the front of the house and the wine program.
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For much of the world’s history, buildings and services were constructed and conceived with nondisabled people in mind, putting up barriers to those living with physical and cognitive disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 sought to curtail those barriers and end disability discrimination by requiring publicly accessible services, transportation and accommodations.
In 1992, Sonoma County adopted an ADA Self-Evaluation and Transition Plan, updated in 2009, that “identifies barriers to buildings, programs and services, and adopts a 12-year schedule to prioritize their removal.”
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You know that one place that sells doughnuts and pho? Or that sandwich place with Tibetan dumplings on Monday your friend keeps talking about? Like most serious eaters, we love finding the weirdly wonderful strip mall joints and hidden culinary gems that offer up interesting and delish food for cheap(ish). Click through the gallery for a few of our favorite “secret” hole-in-the-wall restaurants in Sonoma County.
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Summer and fall are always the busiest seasons for restaurant openings in Sonoma County, and 2023 has been another whirlwind.
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Ricky’s Eastbound restaurant and cocktail bar in Santa Rosa’s Skyhawk Village will close at the end of September to make way for a new family-friendly eatery from the owners of Ausiello’s Fifth Street Bar and Grill.
The Ausiello family’s new project was rumored for months, but Leeanna Kane, the daughter of Ausiello’s founder Armand Ausiello, confirmed Saturday that Ausiello’s Homeslice will be replacing the Mountain Hawk Drive restaurant owned by Rick and Linn Bruno.
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A quick update on Marla Bakery’s progress in Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square: After a revamp, the former Miracle Plum space has been taken over by partners Amy Brown and Joe Wolf.
Brown said the space is nearing completion. Once it’s open, they’ll sell their fresh-baked breads, pastries and a limited to-go menu Thursday through Sunday. Beer and wine will also be available at the location, 600 Wilson St.
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Mark and Terri Stark have often taken risks when choosing locations for their restaurants such as the popular Stark’s Steak & Seafood in Santa Rosa.
From opening their first Sonoma County restaurant, Willi’s Wine Bar, in an out-of-the-way location on Old Redwood Highway in Santa Rosa to choosing the once-crumbling Railroad Square complex where Stark’s Steak & Seafood now operates, the couple have proven their knack for seeing possibilities where others don’t.
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The owners of Sonoma’s critically acclaimed Animo restaurant have announced plans to open a second restaurant, Golden Bear Station, in Kenwood this fall.
The American cuisine brasserie will be a more casual cousin to Animo, chef Joshua Smookler and Heidy He’s contemporary eatery that features whole Spanish turbot and other Basque- and Korean-inspired dishes.
Smookler said they were looking for a new restaurant location in the Sonoma Valley and had a serendipitous conversation with Tips Roadside owners Andrew and Susie Pryfogle about their space. The barbecue and Southern comfort food destination that opened in 2018 closed abruptly in late August. The restaurant business license for the space at 8445 Sonoma Highway transferred to He and Smookler on Sept. 1, leading to much speculation about the couple’s plans.
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Who knew Scotch eggs would be the crowd favorite at Railroad Square’s new Goose & Fern pub in Santa Rosa? Apparently, no one, because Clyde Hartwell, co-owner of the newly opened British pub, can barely keep up with the popularity of the bar staple — an egg nested in a ball of sausage with a fried breadcrumb coating. It’s a belly-filler and just one of the gastropub dishes on the menu at the former Toad in the Hole bar.
Hartwell, who speaks with a brogue as thick as his salt-and-pepper beard, runs the come-as-you-are establishment with his wife, Brittany, a trained pastry chef. Hearty pints of ale, lager and stout (including Guinness, natch) are plentiful, but you’ll also find hard cider, wine and sodas.
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